Re: delivering database stand-alone

Martha Stewart called it a Good Thing whenjoostkremers@fastmail.fm (Joost Kremers)wrote:
> i am planning to build a database (a dictionary in fact) that i will
> eventually want to distribute on a cd (or downloadable iso). what i
> would like to know is if this is technically possible with
> postgresql. and how exactly would it be done? would i have to make
> postgresql run off the cd, or should it first be installed to the
> hard disk? (the latter would be problematic on linux, given the many
> different distros and their different package management systems...)
> how would i deal with systems that already have a postgreql server
> or (more difficult perhaps) a different database server running?
>
> or should i not make use of postgresql (or any database server) at
> all for the cd? after all, the data in the database is static, users
> will not have to modify it, just look it up.

This sounds like a candidate for Dan Bernstein's "CDB" (Constant
DataBase) library.  It builds highly efficient "compiled" hash tables,
that are intended to be treated as "read-only."  (In fact, they can't
readily be updated, once compiled.)

That presents three issues:

1.  It's basically doing "hash table" access; no ordering; no
    approximate matches.

2.  No ability to submit SQL queries.

3.  Discussions of DJB's licensing arrangements tends to cause brain
    haemorraging, anger, and other ills.  The Debian folk have
    created an alternative version that I believe is in the
    public domain (e.g. - not GPL; not LGPL; possibly "freer than
    the BSD License").

In contrast, read-only access to PostgreSQL databases is, while
occasionally discussed, not currently attainable.  (Not, at least, in
a "burn the DB on CD" form.)
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